Neurocognitive functions of prosocial and unsocial incongruency information during language comprehension: evidence from time-frequency analysis of EEG signals.

This study examined neurocognitive mechanisms of prosocial and antisocial congruency in English sentences by conducting an electroencephalography experiment. Participants performed a judgment task whether prosocial and unsocial/antisocial nominal words were congruent or incongruent with the upcoming prosocial and antisocial verbal category of words in sentences (e.g., he established a friendship with others because he wanted to terrorize people). We found that the antisocial sentences were processed in the early P1, whereas prosocial sentences were processed in late P3. The negative deflection of N400 was higher for incongruent than congruent trials in the temporal regions of the brain. Further, the early suppression of antisocial sentences increased the brain oscillation of delta, theta, and beta-band activities in the temporal and frontal regions of the brain. The power spectrum density (PSD) of theta-band frequency was higher for incongruent than congruent trials in the parietal regions of the brain. These results suggest that the antisocial content of language is recognized very rapidly, and the time-course of processing underlies the congruent and incongruent sentences between prosocial and unsocial words in sentences. The current investigation contributes to the recognition of neural signatures of prosocial language that plays a significant role in developing the survival strategies, interpersonal communications, and wellbeing of humans.